Jul 31, 2020 | Uncategorized
When Singapore took the lead in developing a contact tracing app to help curb the spread of COVID-19, many other nations were quick to follow, using the health crisis to justify increased surveillance. But the moment gave citizens a chance to observe their governments...
Mar 23, 2020 | Uncategorized
It’s a tragedy to lose someone prematurely, and it’s particularly painful when that person has been such an active and committed member of the digital rights community. I met Peter Tonoli over a decade ago, and throughout that time, he was a constant...
Mar 16, 2020 | Uncategorized
A SURPRISING NUMBER OF PEOPLE start their working life at McDonald’s. Paul Ryan claimed flipping burgers was central to his understanding of the American Dream. Pharrell Williams was fired three times from the chain. James Franco penned a mildly off-putting love...
Mar 1, 2020 | Uncategorized
At 10am on a Saturday, the Epping Shopping Plaza is bustling with screaming children, pensioners pushing their shopping jeeps, and parents waiting impatiently as coffee machines whir. Waxy supermarket produce gleams under fluorescent lights, home wares are stacked...
Feb 21, 2020 | Uncategorized
One of the common tropes of the digital age is that we should be worried about the AI robots that are coming to kill our jobs, kill our relationships, and ultimately even kill us. The problem is articulated often as a dystopian imagining, which we need to arrest...
Feb 18, 2020 | Uncategorized
I recently returned from a tour across four cities in the US, with eight events. First up was LA, at the beautiful Honor Fraser Gallery in Culver City. It’s a beautiful space, and with a current exhibition focusing on technology. Next stop was San Francisco,...
Jan 7, 2020 | Uncategorized
Australia is your future echo of climate catastrophe. Between four and five million hectares have burned in the last six months, an area about the size of the Netherlands, or just between the size of Maryland and West Virginia. Dozens of people have died, hundreds of...
Dec 1, 2019 | Uncategorized
Discussions about digital privacy often evoke images of whistle-blowers, journalists, and intelligence agencies. But beyond this, it can sometimes feel as though the business model of corporate data mining presents few negative consequences in our daily lives. The...
Nov 11, 2019 | Uncategorized
I was grateful to receive the Human Rights Hero award at RightsCon 2019 presented by Access Now. My esteemed fellow recipients can be found here: https://www.accessnow.org/heroes-villains-awards/ Below is an edited version of my acceptance speech, about the campaign...
Sep 7, 2019 | Uncategorized
The regulation of technology capitalism is now a mainstream topic of discussion. Privacy scandals such as the misuse of Facebook data by Cambridge Analytica, the rise of right-wing extremism, and the diminishing quality of public spaces in the digital age have...
Sep 4, 2019 | Uncategorized
Watching the family from Biloela as they have tried to avoid deportation to Sri Lanka, many people around the country have also gained an insight into the political economy of border security. Activists have turned their attention on contractor Skytraders, who flew...
Aug 15, 2019 | Uncategorized
One of the most memorable characters in the television series Silicon Valley is Gavin Belson, the slick and ruthless CEO of Hooli, a Google-like company. In one of his many pep talks to staff, Belson declares: ‘I don’t know about you people, but I don’t want to live...
Jul 1, 2019 | Uncategorized
After being released internationally a few weeks ago, my new book, Future Histories, goes on sale in Australian bookstores today! Scott Ludlam had the following kind things to say about it: “There has never been a better time to pull the politics of platform...
Jun 15, 2019 | Uncategorized
I was honoured to be named as a Human Rights Hero by Access Now and received the award from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet. See https://www.accessnow.org/heroes-villains-awards/ This is an edited version of my acceptance speech. I also...
May 31, 2019 | Uncategorized
The rhetoric at Facebook—the largest social media platform in the world—is changing. In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg claimed that privacy was no longer a “social norm.” Today, the same man is asserting that “the future is private.” This was the buzz phrase at the company’s...
May 30, 2019 | Uncategorized
When you see an ad for online gambling, it is never a matter of chance. Take, for example, the story of Sportsbet, an Australian company owned by the global gambling-industry behemoth Paddy Power. A recent investigation found that the company spent hundreds of...
May 21, 2019 | Uncategorized
In the late spring of 1972, Lily Gray was driving her new Ford Pinto on a freeway in Los Angeles, and her thirteen-year-old neighbor, Richard Grimshaw, was in the passenger seat. The car stalled and was struck from behind at around 30 mph. The Pinto burst into flames,...
May 20, 2019 | Uncategorized
Climate activist Greta Thunberg recently declared that her generation’s future had been ‘stolen’ so that ‘a small number of people could make unimaginable amounts of money.’ Rather than acting on the impending reality of climate...
May 18, 2019 | Uncategorized
The rhetoric at Facebook – the most significant social media platform in the world – is changing. In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg claimed that privacy was no longer a ‘social norm.’ Today, the same man is now spruiking the line that ‘the future...